Warner has served his suspension for punching Joe Root in a bar and Clarke, even though he is no longer a selector, indicated the fact Warner had missed both warm-up matches would not prevent him from being chosen for the first Ashes Ashes at Trent Bridge starting on Wednesday.

“He has served his punishment, and now it is about working out our best team,” Clarke said.

“He has been in the nets every day. Looking at him, he is a lot fitter than he has been.

"The selectors will take into consideration the fact he has not played cricket but the type of player David is it is more about his mind being clear.

“He is not the type of player that needs two four-day games to make runs to feel confident.

"If he is in the right place, batting well in the nets, then I have confidence if the selectors pick him he can walk straight out in the first Test and make a hundred.”

Warner could be in a position to bat at three with Ed Cowan not making the most of his chances at Worcester and Taunton.

Steve Smith has also emerged as a contender for the position at six in the order just a week after being added to the squad.

On the final day of their tour match against Worcestershire at New Road on Friday the batsmen found form on a very flat pitch but the bowlers struggled to make breakthroughs.

Worcestershire teenager Tom Fell scored his maiden first-class fifty.

Australia did not strike with the new ball at any stage during the match and there was little reverse swing, when there was a distinct feeling of both sides going through the motions.

Lucky then that Shane Warne is in Las Vegas playing poker.

He has called on Australia to be more aggressive and intimidate England. He also urged officials not to stamp out sledging.

“As a general rule I think in most sporting codes at the moment, there’s not a lot of characters and I think we’ve got to be very careful about the fine line between policing the game too much and allowing the emotions and characters to come out,” Warne said.

“Take cricket. As soon as someone gets a bit of fire in the belly and a bit of — not argy-bargy but a bit of sledging – it gets stamped out so quickly and they get nailed.

“So what ends up happening is that people go into their shell and are too afraid to express themselves and I think we want to see some tough formidable characters that we love to hate, and we want to see a contest.

“Sure there’s a line, you can’t be in pubs at two in the morning putting a punch on someone, but you want to see people express themselves and with the ball you want to let them know the batsman’s in a contest.”

Shane Warne will be commentating for Sky Sports this summer. The Ashes will be live and exclusive on Sky